LALA'S READER — Lalina čitanka — 1st draft 2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LALA RASCIC. NO PORTION OF THIS SCRIPT MAY BE PERFORMED, PUBLISHED, REPRODUCED, SOLD OR DISTRIBUTED BY ANY MEANS, OR QUOTED OR PUBLISHED IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING ANY WEB SITE, WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR. DISPOSAL OF THIS SCRIPT COPY DOES NOT ALTER ANY OF THE RESTIRICTIONS SET FORTH ABOVE. A STORY AS ‟THE TRUTH IN DISGUISE” / Introduction –– 005 PRIČA KAO ‟PRERUŠENA ISTINA” / Uvod –– 019 THE INVISIBLES / Chapter #01 –– 033 EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED / Chapter #02 –– 059 SORRY, WRONG NUMBER / Chapter #03 –– 075 TRAVEL IN THE BOX / Chapter #04 –– 107 INDIVIDUAL UTOPIAS / Chapter #05 –– 139 4.3 HECTARES / Chapter #06 –– 179 THE DAMNED DAM / Chapter #07 –– 203 A LOAD FROM THE INSIDE – REVIEWED / Chapter #08 –– 245 BRIGHTER THAN A THOUSAND SUNS / Chapter #09 –– 259 WHATEVER THE OBJECT / Chapter #10 –– 283 NO COUNTRY OTHER THAN LIBERTY / Chapter #11 –– 315 BIBLIOGRAPHY –– 339 Page 3 / CONTENT / Lala's Reader A STORY AS “THE TRUTH IN DISGUISE” On The Passion of The Speaker Jelena Vesić & Vladimir JerićˉVlidi LALA’S READER, WRITTEN BY LALA RAŠČIĆ A PARADOX OF WRITING A MONOGRAPHIC TEXT ABOUT THE ARTIST WHO SPEAKS To apply the approach of monograph to the reading of Lala Raščić’s artistic practice, which by itself already uses forms of narrative, essayistic, infor- mative, visual and critical text, would mean applying strategies of descrip- tion and categorization1 to the content that already speaks of itself and of the world, outlining its own position of speech by other means.2 The task of writing about the art of Lala Raščić thus receives an additional plot and twist – instead of a potential commentator, it is the artwork itself present- ed through the concept of a reader, which, on the very terrain of producing a monograph as the artists’ book, already poses the question of how this posi- tion could be outlined as the negation of the monographic form. The history of art institutionalizes monographic practice as a kind of specific analysis that covers a dedicated field of knowledge, most frequently narrated in the form of biographical study or a study of the works of an individual artist. However, in a broader sense, the linguistic definition of the very word offers another interpretation, maybe even more fit for the purpose of negation of the monographic, brought forward by Lala’s Reader, and this is the meaning in which the monograph also presents “a uniform method for determining the strength and purity of a drug”. To apply the principle of “uniformity” to this reader with various heterogeneous materials – texts and scripts, scenes from various different performances and readings, details in the form of props and scenography, or seemingly absurd byˉproducts of performative processes – might then mean that a “monographic method” could realize its goal by finding in Lala Raščić’s practice the “purity of the drug” of her individual authorship, her “purity of expression”.3 But, if her book resembles anything like her videos or performances, then a discovery of a different cast of roles than expected does not come as a surprise. While the nominal, administrative aspect of this artist’s book unambiguous- ly registers its scripture to the artist, as outlined by the nomination of Written By Lala Raščić, a question of who exactly the title of Lala’s Reader is attributed to remains open for interpretation and speculation: who is the Lala who reads or speaks this text in various performative instances? Is she a “storytelling diva” from the first half of previous century and the “gold- en age” of radio? A queer gangster, constructed from the image of American Page 5 / INTRODUCTION / Lala's Reader mobsters of ‘30s asˉseenˉonˉfilm, with an estranged and mutated voice of Bos- Speech in first person, directly addressing the audience and essayistic fiction nia’s postˉwar criminals, as seen on recent local headlines? Who are all these are precisely the characteristics of what Marrianne Wagner and Jenny Dirk- Lecture Performance 5 Lalas? Standˉup comedians? Popular entertainers? Poets? Lecture performers? sen call the artistic form of , a form that thematizes Researchers? Dadaists? Epic tellers? Skillful reciters? Or simply fans? the complex relationship between art (as a place of creative production) and academy and museum (as the place of interpretation and canonization).6 While This multiplicity of roles and positions gathered under a single signifier of the apologetic moment of “awakening” of the artists who speaks through the Lala’s does not only bear witness to theatrical costumes or of consuming and intellectualization of artistic practices in the ‘60s and ‘70s loses its rele- enacting different identities characteristic of the ideology of the podium and vance today and becomes merged with the progressive practices of contemporary spotlights and its stars and divas, or of the neoˉliberal context of produc- researchˉbased art projects, Lecture Performance as genre remains as the con- ing and trading with identities – that in the “monographic sense” could be a densate of the (revolutionary) heritage of that historical period. pursuit of the original seal of authorship, a unique personality and “branded” body of work. Quite the contrary, such multiple roles and positions speak of Here it may be important to note that Wagner7 also connects Lecture Perfor- collectivity and communitarianism of an artistic act that can only be brought mance with the concept of halfˉknowledge, where invention and fiction, irony into being through a certain historical dialogue and a kind of shared author- and humor, play a fundamental role in addressing the truth, the information ship. While Lala Raščić is certainly a singular author, Lalas are her multi- and the fact. Information, served with humor but also with a certain gravity, plicity.4 “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” goes the famous advice of Sigmund is among the key “ingredients” of the scripts presented by Lala Raščić, sto- Freud, who Lala will meet later in one of her journeys in this book – but Lala ries which are always researchˉbased, realityˉbased and referenceˉbased, with is never “just Lala”. unavoidable elements of fiction and “storytelling”, which precisely makes them scripts. Perhaps we can even conceptualize it as essayistic scripts – Dirksen Establishing the cuts and stitches between the individual attribution of Lala accentuates the role of the essay in Lecture Performance, where the tradi- Raščić and the multiplicity of Lalas reveals the feedback loop between indi- tional categorization of poetic writing to epic, lyrical and dramatic forms vidual authorship and the collective, the communitarian, the historical and is not applicable. She calls the essay “a fourth genre”, or the principle of the social… Lala Raščić and Lalas cannot be explained based on the “purity and textualization that “overrides” the models of genre and discourse.8 A second uniqueness of expression” of her individual position of an author, precisely important aspect of essayistic writing, especially in the artistic act of its because her body becomes a kind of container and a kind of transmitter for many “spatialization” through cinematographic or performative practices, Thijs Wit- skeptical thinking critical positioning, other bodies, many histories and voices. For the same reason, Lalaˉasˉartist ty finds in the elements of or which never comfortably situates herself in the elitist gallery framework of the follow the form of essay through its complex historical development.9 white cube. She always seems to be more curious about popular or “off” places found outside of galleries and away from the art crowd, places where less of Precisely through this interplay between the different categories of “the the expected audience might be met – and Lala will not miss a chance to create real” on the terrain of skeptical or critical thinking, Lala Raščić establish- a nonˉconventional atmosphere in any occasion. es her social and artistic attitude, at the same time affirming and negating artist as lecturer the position of ˉ ˉ within the field of Lecture Performance and Lala’s Reader, on one hand, does temporary close a certain artistic body of seeking for her own method or artistic expression – pursuing something that work by documenting the chronology of her artistic development and establish- could be called “Lala’s Way”. Though this twoˉfold game, Raščić actually en- ing the abstract, retrospective view on this development from the position of ters into dialogue with classic didactic art activism and its accompanying artist who speaks transformation through information the . The outlook of such a position creates the main narra- logic of ˉ ˉ . Lala Raščić makes the truths “in tion of this book. On the other hand, Lala’s Reader also rejects the canon of camouflage” to hit the observer from an unexpected direction, by dressing them monograph that aims to encompass and encircle an individual oeuvre and enclose up in disguise and estranging them first. into first person speech that which in reality exists almost always as the col- lectively determined production of art. Readers of this book will then perhaps discover that they don’t have to be passive readers, keeping their distance STORYTELLING, OR RUN, LALA, RUN from the magnificent object of observation, and may choose to become one of the Lalas by finding their own story and symbolically overtaking this book. In the case of Lala, the position of the artist who speaks does not come in the form of a “pure product” of Ars Academica (Lecture Performance), but rather in the form of something we could call Story Performance, where the accent is LECTURE PERFORMANCE AND “LALA’S WAY” put not on the purely cognitive, but on the affective development. Delineat- ed by this is Lala’s desire to tell, to yell her stories as loud as possible, …and while the Lalas witness about how the individual artistic work is always whenever and wherever possible.